Rating: 4 out of 5
The story of the White Ship (Blanche-Nef) is probably mentioned to some degree in most histories of England as its sinking caused one of the biggest political disasters of the 12th century. Yet, I had not really focussed on this event in my reading thus far. Mr Spencer’s history does a great job of describing the events of that fateful night as well as the immediate aftermath of the deaths from the sinking. The author starts by describing the state of England up to 1120 to explain exactly what the immediate outcome of the accident was, and then continues through the sinking to the start of the reign of Henry’s grandson.
If one wants a good understanding of this maritime accident, then this book lays out all the facts in a superb way. Best not sail if everyone’s drunk is the short of it, though one should keep in mind that even today, alcohol causes all sorts of issues at sea even if fortunately these days it is generally not the master that’s wasted. I would not like the task of sailing that ship out of Barfleur myself, though looking at a map of the area now does not quite resemble the description from this book. I’m not sure if that’s my memory playing tricks or the general lay of the land having been greatly modified, which it may well have been.
The subsequent history of the Anarchy was the part I liked less. Indeed, I think the description of the so-called Anarchy goes a little bit too far: it tries to cover the period, while clearly only laying out the major events. While a direct consequence of the White Ship disaster, it’s clear that much more detailed histories of the Anarchy exist and should be read to understand that time better. However, I did like how Matilda was brought in, and I think that Mr Spencer went further than most authors in explaining Matilda’s background, temperament, and her prior political experience.
Overall, I liked the author’s style and the subject of the book, and would probably turn to this again if I wanted to understand a part of the sinking better.
